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The Center on Alternative Dispute Resolution
OCU School of Law
Our Academic Mission
- The Center on Alternative Dispute Resolution provides coherence and structure for the varied activities of OCU School of Law in the areas of negotiation, mediation, and arbitration.
- The Center assures that all ADR programs operated under its auspices meet the dual obligations of public service and pedagogy.
- Research is an integral part of the Center’s activities, in order to improve continually the quality of service provided to the justice system.
- Specifically, the Center focuses on ethics in ADR and identifying the variables that help courts and practitioners to “match the fuss to the forum.”
10 Years of Synergy: Learning, Service & Research
- For ten years the Center on Alternative Dispute Resolution hosted the Early Settlement Central Mediation Program, the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ADR program established under 12 Okla. Stat. § 1801 et seq.
- Law students became certified mediators and mediator assistants working side-by-side with attorney mediators and non-attorney mediators under the Oklahoma Supreme Court model, with the nation’s first enforceable code of ethics for mediators.
- The detailed, diligent work of law students over the past decade permitted the Early Settlement Central program at OCU School of Law to bridge ADR theory and practice to continually improve the quality and type of services available to the public.
- One of the most prominent examples of this synergy is the evolution of the treatment of domestic violence issues in family mediation.
The Pre-mediation Interview for Family Disputes
- As mandated by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, Early Settlement Central conducts extensive pre-mediation interviews with both parties to a proposed family mediation.
- The approximately one-hour, separate, private interview screens for past or present occurrences of domestic violence, current alcohol abuse or other substance abuse, and various other factors indicating a gross and unacceptable imbalance of power between the parties.
- Following the rules of the Oklahoma Supreme Court for the Early Settlement program, such cases are denied.
Law students who were (or were seeking to become) certified mediators conducted most of these interviews, submitting their findings to the program director and intake coordinator to make the final determination as to suitability.
- The longitudinal, intensive analysis by students and faculty resulted in a number of significant changes over the years, amending the original interview questionnaire developed by Dr. Linda Girdner for the American Bar Association Family Law Section.
- For a fuller discussion, see the special issue of the Loyola University (New Orleans) Law Review, Symposium on Integrating Responses to Domestic Violence, Phyllis E. Bernard, “Teaching Ethical, Holistic Client Representation in Family ADR,” 47 Loy. L. Rev. 163 (2001).
- Changes included:
- Softening some questions to make them more open-ended and to elicit more emotional content.
- Adding specifying language to obtain more explicit information about specific behaviors (e.g., throwing what kind of object? in what direction? Hitting with an open hand? fist?)
- Expanding the interview process to include other adult members of the child’s household, e.g., new spouse or parent’s live-in boyfriend/girlfriend.
- Adapting the interview instrument to meet the needs of parents and teens when mediating cases referred by juvenile court.
The Next 10 Years: Focus on Client Representation in ADR
- In the 2004-2005 academic year, the Center on ADR began to better integrate the lessons learned from our clinical experiences into classroom offerings that could reach a larger number of students.
- All clinical offerings must be limited in class size (typically, fewer than 10 students per year).
- Yet the need for attorney competence in venues outside of classic trial practice is large. Therefore, we adapted the ground-breaking Client Representation curriculum of our Summer ADR Institute for inclusion in the regular academic year.
The OCU Client Representation in ADR Curriculum
- Our Summer ADR Institute, offered from 1998 through 2002, was a great success, providing some 50 students each summer with a much-needed education in how to resolve 90-98% of the cases they will encounter in practice.
- By moving this curriculum into the regular academic year, this educational opportunity will be available to a much larger number of students.
- The Law of ADR (3 credits) – a didactic survey course on the procedural and substantive law and ethics of negotiation, mediation, and arbitration – will be offered twice a year for both day and evening students. This course is a prerequisite for advanced courses in:
- Client Representation in Negotiation (including client interviewing and counseling) (2 credits);
- Client Representation in Mediation (2 credits); and
- Client Representation in Arbitration (2 credits).
- The Client Representation classes do not intend to educate law students to become the third-party neutral; but rather, as the name denotes, to fulfill their obligations as an advocate in settings outside the courtroom. Students explore theory and practice through readings, simulations, and writing assignments based upon National Institute for Trial Advocacy curricula.
The Certificate in Client Representation in Alternative Dispute Resolution
- The Certificate is awarded to students who complete all three Client Representation classes (Negotiation, Mediation, and Arbitration) offered in the regular curriculum.
- The Certificate allows people to know at a glance that this is a lawyer who comes already equipped with some of the most coveted training in ADR available in the nation: the NITA program.